The Selective Collective: Dualed by Elsie Chapman

This week Gone Pecan is featuring the roundtable/book club discussion.

1. The idea behind Dualed is pretty rough, kill or be killed. If trained properly could you live in a world where in order to live you have to kill your double?

Would I be able to kill my double? Absolutely not!!!! I always read these dystopian books and I’m like, “How would I ever survive in this world!?” I guess I would be the Alt that got killed. Or maybe I’d hire a striker. I don’t think I’d have the guts or any amount of bravery when someone is hunting me down. I’d probably die of a heart attack from the stress! I’ve never been put in a situation where I would have to act on my survival instincts, but if someone were attacking me, I MAY be strong enough to fend them off. Killing them? I’m really not sure! – Brittany @ Book Addict’s Guide

While I don’t think killing is right, I think if I lived in this world obviously I’d be okay with it. Since you’re pretty much raised from infancy with the knowledge that one day you’re going to have to kill your double, that mindset is pretty much ingrained in your head. Obviously in my own life I’ve never been faced with this situation, so I can’t say how I’d react to it in our world… but in this one? Yeah, I’d be okay with it. Would it suck? Of course. But so would dying. Although, I hope I’d be the Katniss Everdeen of my world and rebel against the society and my double and I would join forces and become an unstoppable duo, rising up against the government that forces kids to kill one another! I’d meet a dreamy baker along the way and we would have lots of kissy times and “bake bread” (teehee). – Candice @ The Grown-Up YA

2. Do you think West’s decision to join the Strikers was rash so soon after her brother’s death?

At first I felt I understood West’s decision to join the Strikers. She had no family left, she worried about what would happen when it was time to hunt her alt ( or be hunted). I thought that as a paid assassin she would receive training. But when I realized that she just had to go out there and start working without any real guidance I thought she was crazy. First, there was the risk of actually getting hurt, then the risk of getting caught. And it all seemed to be a diversion from the main, more imminent task. – Tee @ YA Crush

3. Denial plays a huge role in this book. Why do you think it is so hard for West to see that Chord isn’t watching out for her just because of a promise to her brother and that she can and should accept his support?

I think that’s exactly it – Denial. West doesn’t want to lose another person close to her and I think the fact that she’s lost her family has kind of ruined her. She feels better knowing that Chord is still alive, even if it means she won’t be. She’s afraid of getting close to him because the more she cares about him, the more she feels she has to watch out for him and take care of him. She had seen too many accidents where innocent people get killed and she doesn’t want Chord to be one of them. – Brittany @ Book Addict’s Guide

4. Being a Striker, why do you think its so easy for West to kill other’s Alts but not her own when it means life and death for herself?

I think West’s able to kill her clients’ Alts, because she’s in denial about her mission to kill her own Alt but can compartmentalize that she’s helping her clients in a way she wasn’t able to help or save her siblings. She also does her best to make sure she performs “clean” kills with no collateral damage, since that’s how her mother and brother died. I figured it was West’s way of grieving the loss of those she loved — doing something for those who can’t kill their Alts themselves. It’s a revolutionary thing for her to be a Striker. It’s not just a mercenary job for her; it’s also her way of subverting a culture that rewards the “strongest,” more ruthless Alt. Sandie @ Teen Lit Rocks

Liked our roundtable post? Check out all the other great SC posts about this book!

5 thoughts on “The Selective Collective: Dualed by Elsie Chapman”

After reading Tee’s answer, I realized that West’s whole point in joining the Strikers was to actually get training… why didn’t she? Was killing other people supposed to be the training? I must have glossed over that thought!

These were good questions. I like that we had a couple of different answers on the first one. It’s more fun to discuss that way.
Candice, I guess her “training” was hands-on experience, but I would have thought she would have been taught something before her first mission. I thought that was weird, but then again, I’m a huge chicken and would have hidden in my closet anyway.

I agree with you guys! She should have gotten more training from her Striker days!
These were fun questions! I always like when we start to discuss!! It’s so interesting hearing how different our opinions are sometimes or what I missed that someone else picked up on 🙂